Signs that a Business Needs to Upgrade Their IT

There's a good chance that if you're in business today, there at least a couple devices on your network that you haven’t touched in years, might not be using, or don’t even need. Sadly, there are times when the technology you have doesn’t do anything but take up space. If you feel like you are spending too much on your technology, you may be right. By finding the IT that helps your organization operate more smoothly, and terminating plans for implementing technology that doesn’t provide sustainable returns may be a sound strategy.

When you discover whether or not a piece of technology needs to be replaced or eliminated, the first decision you have to make is how this piece of technology affects our service or products. If you can utilize the technology and it helps fulfill opportunities, encourages productivity and efficiency, or is just overall a benefit for the organization, then you obviously keep it. If the piece of technology doesn’t offer clear benefits, then you should try and understand what the problems are and why you may need to terminate that technology.

It's not always that simple, though. Let's go through some pieces of technology that you may find in modern business and describe the pertinent signs that a piece of it may be failing.

Server Hard Drives
Standard computing environments use hard disk drives (HDD) that usually last between three-to-five years and will show indications that a failure is imminent. These signs include:

• The drive is making noises (clicking, whirring, humming).
• Repeated crashes and software errors.
• Repeated disk errors.
• Strange computer behavior.

These can also be signs that the computer that runs an HDD. These days there are computers that have what are known as solid state drives (SSD) in them. SSDs are mostly expected to last longer, five-to-seven year and don’t always have the telltale signs of failure that HDDs do. Here is where monitoring your SSD comes in. Just like the RMM service we provide at Macro Systems, you can download software that will permit you to monitor the strength of your SSD.

Aside from that, there are some signs that your SSD isn't going to last much longer. These signs include error messages that constantly pop up, files that can’t be written or read, and frequent crashes during the boot phase. Upgrading your hard drive before a major failure of your IT would keep downtime and costs associated with that downtime to a minimum.

Networking
Major networking problems can test any business’ relationships. The loss of access to the Internet and the data workers need to do their jobs extends very quickly to the cost of the product or service, and the staff’s ability to support. If you can't stay connected, or aren't getting the bandwidth that you require, you probably have a problem with a router, switch, or some other part of your networking system.

What’s worse than having hardware that is failing? Not even having that hardware in the first place. If your organization needs help with their wireless network, mobile computing management system, or any other system used to connect people or move data around, reaching out to the IT professionals at Macro Systems can be a great decision.

If your IT seems like it is failing there is only one way to be sure that won’t be significantly costly for your business, call our professional technicians to do a full assessment of your business’ technology today at 703-359-9211.